Song and Shadow: Emotions of Dischord
by Jolyn the Nydra
Summary: Rewrite of Song and Shadow. 6 months after the Promised Day, things have returned to normal. Al has his body back, and Ed can still perform alchemy. But when 2 state alchemists return from their travels and Ed and Al are assigned to show them around and explain things, the brothers find themselves dragged into a new adventure with a special twist: the Homunculi are GOOD. 3-4 OCs.


**Here it is! The long-awaited rewrite of Song and Shadow is here!**

**In this version, I have changed the setting to 6 months after the Promised Day, not one month. Also, a few other times and some slight trivia are different. The storyline for the rewrite will be a bit different from the original, but hopefully it's better.**

**One of the more noticeable changes (though it's not as obvious in this chapter, if probably will be later) is Song. Jen and I came to the agreement and decision that her character was a bit too Mary-Sue-ish and that she didn't fit into the story as well and so she'll be going under a personality change over the next couple chapters.**

**On that note, Song and Kou will be less powerful and less storyline-hogging than in the original as well. Anyways, though, now that this little info dump is done, let's get on to the story!**

**Disclaimer: Neither Jen nor I own FMA. If **_**I**_** did…well…the Popcorn would be getting a lot more epic scenes.**

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If you need a guide:

"Blah" –talking  
'_Blah'_ –thoughts  
_(Blah)_ –in the case of this chapter, that's a third-person POV scene in the middle of a character's POV.  
Note: there are many phrases in parentheses in this chapter. None of them are author's notes, as those would be indicated in **bold**.

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**I— A New Beginning**

It was a regular day at central in Colonel Mustang's office, or at least as regular as it could be when the Fullmetal and Flame Alchemists were in the same room…and not yelling at each other. Instead, Ed was simply gaping at the Colonel.

"EH?" was the first thing out of his mouth before he decided to elaborate on the single-syllable word. "Let me rephrase that…WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

Al sweatdropped. "That's not much of an improvement, brother."

Mustang sighed. This could take a while. "As I just said, there are two state alchemists who were off doing their own thing the last year and half or so. So now you are responsible for telling them about anything that changed after the Promised Day. Speaking of that, they have already been informed about everything that happened while they were gone."

Al blinked as his brother fumed, processing what they had just been told. "Eh? But why us?"

"Well, you're the same age as them. One's 15 years old, the other's 16. They both became alchemists two years ago, though," Mustang explained. "Now they should be getting here soon, so pipsqueak—"

The door slammed open as both Ed and one of the people who had opened the door both screamed at the man, "WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT THEY'RE KNOWN WORLDWIDE AS THE 'PIPSQUEAK ALCHEMIST' YOU MORONIC COLONEL?"

At the same time, both Al and the other person who had just entered tried in vain to stop the outbursts with a "He didn't say that, Brother!/'kay?"

The occupants of the room turned to the two newcomers at the door. "Would you just SHUT UP?" one of them, a girl about Al's age yelled at the one who had just insulted her height. The other, a boy who appeared to be Ed's age (though he was significantly taller) nodded.

"Try to live without insulting someone every second, will ya? Idiotic Popcorn Kernel*." He huffed and looked at Ed and Al, giving them time to study him and his friend as the Colonel tried to regain some form of composure (he was busy trying not to laugh his ass off, to the newcomers' annoyance).

The boy had waist-length black hair tied back in a low ponytail and his bangs fell over his face, covering his right eye. The tips of his hair and bangs were dyed blood red (though where he even got hair dye was a mystery to Ed), the same color as his visible eye. His clothes were fairly simple—a denim jacket with a plain T-shirt underneath and black cargo pants. Around his waist was a gold and black pouch and he wore a thin chain necklace with a curved gold, red, and black lightning bolt pendant. He was obviously rather irritated with the "Idiotic Popcorn Kernel" as he put it.

The girl had waist-length brown hair in a regular ponytail. In her hair, above her ears, were small metal wings with sharpened feathers, three of them on each side. Her pale blue eyes held a secretive quality and were set in an impassive face. She wore a casual gold tunic with an interesting design lining the edges of her sleeves and the collar of her shirt. Her dark blue jeans were long enough to hide her shoes. She wore several beaded bracelets and a single metal one with a sapphire set in it on her right wrist. Raising her hand in greeting, a rather bored sounding "Yo," was all she said.

Mustang smirked as he nodded towards them, "Well Fullmetal, these are the two I told you about. The girl is Songblade,"

"Song is perfectly fine, especially if a certain Popcorn decides to use it as an introductory phrase. 'Songblade' isn't even my given name." she interjected.

"And the boy is—" the Flame Alchemist continued, only to be cut off by the boy.

"It's Kou. I refuse to allow this popcorn idiot to say any more potentially insulting comments for the rest of the day."

"Aw, be nice…" the man whined.

"I was," Kou deadpanned.

Song grinned. "Congratulations, you idiot Popcorn…I think that's Kou's new record for how fast he owned someone verbally…"

Kou smirked. "Actually, my record was within milliseconds of meeting someone…still, this one was pretty quick indeed…Well, bye, then 'Sir Useless Popcorn Kernel'." They left him to sulk about being called useless while the two newcomers laughed (or more like cackled, in Kou's case…) at his plight. The Elric brothers sweatdropped.

As they left, Al realized they hadn't introduced themselves yet. "Oh, yeah, I'm Alphonse Elric, and my brother is Edward. You can call us Ed and Al."

"The Fullmetal Alchemist and his brother, huh?" Song said, "Though I expected you to be taller, Ed…"

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SHORT? Anyways, you shouldn't talk; you're just as short as I am!"

"Well I'm younger than you!"

"So? Midget!"

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A MIDGET, YOU SUPER SMALL SPECK?"

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A SUPER SMALL SPECK, YOU MINIATURE ALCHEMIST?"

"WHO'RE YOU—"

Kou's eye began to twitch as Al simply watched in helpless bemusement. Finally the dark-haired alchemist snapped.

"Okay," he began, deceptively calm, "now that you two have established that you're going to continue this pointless argument, would you mind SHUTTING UP?" His voice was a shout by the end.

Everyone stared at him. "Wow, that's the most you've all day, Kou!" Song noted with surprise.

They all sweatdropped. "I suspect there will be more of these arguments in the future…" Kou groaned.

"Of course," Song quipped, not very comforting at all.

"…"

After going around through Central to show Song and Kou around, the dysfunctional group of four stopped for lunch. As they all settled down to eat on a park bench (for they had decided the park was a better place to eat than military offices), Ed realized something.

"Oh yeah, you two are State Alchemists, right? Which ones?"

Song blinked. "Oh, I'm the Song Alchemist. Kind of funny that it matches my name, huh?"

Kou sighed, "And I'm the Shadow Alchemist." Ed nodded.

"I see. Well, you know I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist."

Al grinned. "Isn't it great Brother? No one mistakes me for you now that I have my body back! If only we could have given you your arm and leg back too…" His voice got a bit sad at the end.

"Don't worry, Al. Who knows? Maybe you'll find a way." Song spoke reassuringly.

Suddenly a rather obnoxious and horrifyingly familiar voice sounded. "Hey, pipsqueak, armor boy! I see you've made friends with another shorty and alchemist, huh?"

Ed and Al glared at the one who just spoke. "Envy…aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Al nodded, "Erm…you committed suicide, I believe that that means guaranteed death, right?"

"Someone brought him back obviously… And how come you didn't insult/nickname Kou? Geez." Song mumbled.

"She's right, we, the homunculi, have been resurrected! I'll let you in on a secret, though: whoever made us…they made us GOOD!"

Everyone dropped their lunches. "_**EH?**_"

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Envy was enjoying their reactions a bit too much, he knew. But it really was too funny;

Ed was glaring at him in disbelief (did the kid ever get tired of glaring at him?), but only after doing a very impressive imitation of a fish that the palm-tree homunculi found quite hilarious. Al was still doing his fish impression while pointing helplessly in confusion. Song had broken her emotionless mask as her eyes widened and she fell halfway off of her seat (anime-style, of course) before she caught herself and schooled her face back to its usual impassive appearance. Kou raised an eyebrow as his eyes widened, still managing to hold onto his sarcasm even though his shock was fairly evident. (…Okay, it was evident in Kou terms: it was visible. That was very rare, seeing as his emotions were usually impossible to make out.)

The shape-shifting homunculus smirked at them. "What, cat got your tongue?" he inquired teasingly. This seemed to snap them out of their varying states of shock.

"Whaddya mean you're _good?!_ I mean, that can't even be _possible!_" You can guess who said that, right? The Pipsqueak, of course.

(_For a moment, Envy's smirk slipped. Seriously, now he was acting as if there were people who could hear his thoughts! He wasn't the narrator of some stupid manga, dammit! What was wrong with him? He shook off his musings and continued to observe the group before him. He would have to get Greed to check this out later, the other homunculi had experience living in someone else's head, after all…_)

Shorty sighed quietly and gave him a look. "He _just_ said it, and for some reason, I doubt that he's lying…"

Kou's head fell into one of his hands as he sighed, mumbling something under his breath. The homunculus curiously enhanced his hearing and made out something along the lines of, "worse than Laxis on a bad day, I swear…which is saying something, the way he rages at anything that sets him off when he's like that…" _'Huh. Note to self: talk to Kou about that and figure out a way to nickname him without getting blackmailed…'_

The one resembling a palm tree turned to the only one who had yet to comment on his statement: Al.

…Envy deadpanned as he realized that the reason Al wasn't expressing any surprise was because he was _still_ in shock. The homunculus sighed and gestured at the still-gaping blonde. "Oi, Pipsqueak! I think we might have broken you brother."

Just then, another all-too-familiar voice rang out. "Figures you'd do something like that, Envy!"

The group turned to see a not-quite-unwelcome figure. "Ling?"

He smirked. "Nope, Greed here. Prince's body and all that, though the prince (or is it Emperor now? Bah, whaterever) is still ruling Xing so I honestly have no idea how…"

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*** Kou calls Roy that because "Colonel" sounds like "Kernel" and you need a lot of heat to pop popcorn. And where better to get that heat than the Flame Alchemist?**

**And so here it is? Whaddya think? Better than last time? Worse? Review and let us know!**

**Also, does anyone want a sidestory as to why Envy refuses to nickname Kou (and that part about blackmail?)**


End file.
